Fiskars Decorative Edges, But Not Smooth To Use

These scissors are by Fiskars so I expected them to work more smoothly. They do make the decorative cuts that they are shown to make, but can be annoying to use.

I can’t really complain about these. I got them on sale for just $1.00 a pair. At that price they allow me to do some extra playing with my photo books. I’m not a huge scrapbooker. I try to arrange family photos in books with some decoration, but REAL scrapbook people would recognize my efforts as second-rate in a flash. I’m just not willing to spend that much time and money. I do like to have options, and I don’t like spending much money. These scissors have really helped me find that balance.

I have these two, deckle, and majestic, which describe the shape of the edge they cut. These work just like pinking shears; the cutting edge is the shape of the design, and as the two edges meet they simply cut that design in the paper.

These are often sold in sets of 6 classic designs (scallop, pinking, ripple, imperial, deckle and corkscrew) and contemporary (Victorian, mini-pinking, heartbeat, Arabian, stamp, and lightning). The Fiskars web site shows several other single designs (clouds, Colonial, cotton candy, heartsrrings). I don’t find that Majestic is still available.

You can just edge a piece of paper, or make decorative strips by cutting two edges. Whether you align the two sides of the strip to be symmetrical or offset will change the look too. It isn’t too tricky to line up the cut to make a long strip of edging that is perfect. However, the metal cutting blades are cheaply made and do not slide together easily. The cutting process can even seem jerky.

Also, the handles are not comfortable for extended use. My hands are small and even I find them uncomfortable. It’s not a problem for a lazy scrapbooker such as I am, but someone who spends whole evenings working with them may find them almost painful.

The fact that these are inexpensive makes it possible to own many and make all the interesting cuts. So that is a really good thing. But they really are difficult to use, so I can’t give them as high of a rating as one would expect to see on a Fiskars’ product.